'Trench Coat Bandit' gets 22 years for Quincy bank holdup

A career criminal known as the “Trench Coat Bandit” has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for the armed robbery of a Citizens Bank in North Quincy last year.

Chris Burrell

A career criminal known as the “Trench Coat Bandit” was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to 22 ½ years prison for the armed bank robbery of a Citizens Bank in North Quincy last year.

Louis C. Barton, 53, formerly of Everett, was found guilty in U.S. District Courtt on Monday of robbing the 371 Hancock St. bank at gunpoint on Jan. 26, 2010.

Authorities said Barton entered the bank at about 3:45 p.m. wearing a full-length trench coat and black pantyhose over his face, pointed a revolver at an employee at the customer service desk and pushed the gun into the employee’s back.

He then ordered everyone in the bank to the far end of the office and shouted at the tellers to give him money without a dye packet, “Or somebody is going to get hurt.”

Police suspected that Barton’s getaway plan was the nearby Red Line train at the North Quincy station, and they reviewed the MBTA surveillance tapes after the robbery. They found a person resembling the robber used an MBTA pass o enter the station five minutes before the robbery.

The pass was registered to Barton. When he was arrested several weeks later – in March 2010 – after a car and a foot chase, police said Barton reached into his waist and attempted to pull out a gun. Police were able to wrest the .22 caliber gun away and arrest him.

His prison sentence was handed down Monday as part of a plea agreement. U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock ordered that the sentence be followed by five years of supervised release and also ordered Barton to $12,380 in restitution to Citizens Bank.

Barton, who often used the alias Patrick O’Neill, served four years in state prison for armed holdups at several hotels, including the Adams Inn and Presidents City Inn in Quincy. He was released in 2008.